The Nibbana Family

This year, we started a vegetable (and fruit) garden.  One of the plants I was most excited about was tomatoes.  I haven’t grown tomatoes since I was very small, but I love to eat them!  We planted two large pots in May, and they are HUGE!  There are many tiny green tomatoes growing.

The tomatoes in the pictures are roma (oblong) and celebrity (round).  Roma tomatoes are good for canning and sauce, but I will attest that they taste great raw!  Celebrity tomatoes are more of an all-purpose hybrid.  They are supposed to be easy to grow, and so far, I would have to say that is true.

One of the best things about having fresh tomatoes is using them in a cold pasta salad.  Tomatoes, pasta, olive oil, garlic, basil, and a bit of parmesan cheese make for a tasty summer dish.  Mmmmmmmm!

It is such a relief to be done for two whole months!

This school year was stressful.  It was my first year teaching with Howard County, so I had to figure out a new curriculum and all of the ways the new school works (each school system has a different way of doing things).  I also had a room that was next to the school computer lab, which was convenient but also presented some unique challenges.  Our school was designed with open spaces and retractable walls which aren’t exactly soundproof, so several months of the year when they conduct testing in the lab I had to vacate my room and teach from a mobile cart.  It’s rougher than it sounds; when you can’t count on a classroom and have to make constant last minute changes and signs to direct your students, it eventually wears on you. Good thing I’m flexible!

Last summer was my first summer off. Previously I taught summer school, which takes at least a month out of the summer and is usually right in the middle of the break.  Last summer we had our condo on the market so we had to keep the place immaculate, which doesn’t lend itself to much relaxation.  When it finally went under contract, we had to continue keeping it clean in case something fell through while also packing up.  In the last few weeks of summer, we moved in with Mom, but then I had to look for a new job.  Basically, last summer was very busy.

This summer is different.  After a new roof derailed our vacation plans, I recently realized I have NO plans this summer!  I will soon start up a summer calandar, so I can keep track of playdates and programs at the library.  We also plan to spend a lot of time at pool.  It’s going to be a great summer!

It’s nice to have a day to celebrate Moms!

We invited Mom, Rita (a family friend) and Sophia, my sister, over for a Mother’s Day brunch.  I made a fruit salad and whipped cream and Chuck went all out with bacon, eggs, and french toast.  It was a wonderful excuse to have family over and to savor a scrumptious meal with some wonderful people!

Mother’s Day, along with a lot of other holidays, is characterized by being too commercialized.  Often people feel the need to buy a card, buy flowers, and/or buy a gift.  In fact, Anna Jarvis, who campaigned for the creation of Mother’s Day, became disillusioned with the holiday less than a decade after the first official celebration.  “I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit,” Jarvis complained, dismissing greeting cards as “a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write.”

Today, we didn’t buy a card or a gift, and beyond the food we did not spend money at all.  I think I can say with confidence that my Mom, Rita, and Sophia saw how much they were loved and appreciated!

Living in a condo keeps you from doing a lot of environmentally friendly things you might do if you lived in a house.  One of those things is composting.  Lately, I have learned about composting that I can do here, even though I am in a living space without a yard.  I will soon begin to compost my kitchen scraps by vermicomposting.  Vermicomposting is a large, unsightly word that describes the method of breaking down organic matter into dirt using worms.  It is well-suited to small spaces where it may not be possible to have a typical compost bin.

While it is possible to vermicompost using buckets or totes, I am planning on buying a worm factory.   A worm factory is a nifty contraption that allows the worms to move upward as they create “black gold” soil (see “continuous vertical flow” here).  I am hoping to cut our trash down to a minimum and feed the worms!  The worms run around $25 for a pound of red wigglers, which I am told is the best compositing variety.  I’m going to spend the next week shopping around before I buy, and I will post what I purchase and where in Post 2.

Happy Composting!

How do you balance being eco-friendly and yet still keep your family safe from germs?  You’ve most likely heard about anti-microbial soaps and how some germs have become resistant.  In the kitchen, there is a solution!  In the book Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck, I read about her “dual spray program”.  She keeps two spray bottles handy – one with vinegar and a dark colored one with 3% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).  The dark bottle is for the hydrogen peroxide, which needs to be kept away from light so it doesn’t break down.

How does it work?

When the hydrogen peroxide is exposed to light, heat, or organic materials it releases its extra oxygen, so that pure water and oxygen are produced.  Micro-organisms find pure oxygen to be exceedingly toxic.  You can actually see the reaction as the hydrogen peroxide bubbles!   In Sandbeck’s book, she states that hydrogen peroxide kills 100x as many bacteria as vinegar, but when used in conjunction 10x more bacteria were killed as the hydrogen peroxide alone.

The dual spray system is good for these uses:  disinfect countertops, stoves, sinks, and refrigerators, raw foods, and processed foods (do not use on marble countertops and the vinegar may be harmful to calcium-based natural stone).

To disinfect surfaces, spray with one bottle then the other.  It is not necessary to rinse.  Many people dislike the smell of vinegar, so you may want to spray the vinegar first.  Produce and meat can follow the same method – spray with vinegar then the hydrogen peroxide.  The hydrogen peroxide rinses the vinegar off.  Non-cardboard processed food containers should be washed of any material that spilled, then sprayed with hydrogen peroxide then vinegar, and wiped down.

A final note: cutting boards.  Most people think that a plastic or glass cutting board would be cleaner than a wood one, but the opposite is true.  Both a study in 1992 and one in 1993 showed that the wood cutting boards were less likely to harbor germs such as salmonella, listeria, or E. Coli.  The wood fibers actually soak up and kill the bacteria.  More information on these studies can be found in Ms. Sandbeck’s book.